“I wouldn’t use the word ‘restrained’ when describing Promising Young Woman. There’s nothing subtle about this movie, and it’s not realism at all. It’s a post-#MeToo fantasy, a feminist version of Death Wish…a justifiably angry woman (Carey Mulligan) punishing filthy men. Mulligan is depicted as heroic without any real-life consequences or police investigations or social media gotchas. It gives you a lot to chew on and talk about post-screening — in a sense it’s right at the forefront of the post-#MeToo conversation — but then again it’s not saying anything new. And it’s definitely a world apart. It charges into extreme realms.” — Word of Reel‘s Jordan Ruimy.

As the YouTube world has been teeming with stylistic Wes Anderson tribute videos for the last 15 or 20 years, it will come as no surprise that another has just landed. But a pretty good one. It’s from Blood Cultures and director Saleem Barbados.** Jett Wells is their manager, and he passed it along, etc. It premiered on YouTube this morning. “Hard to Explain” is a 19-year-old song, originally recorded by The Strokes.

…of running even slightly afoul of the militant #MeToo crowd, I would say that Michelle Pfeiffer, who’s been on the planet since April ’58, looks really terrific. But I’d better not say that for fear of being called all kinds of names. I enjoyed about 15 minutes of face time with Pfeiffer in May of ’82 (she had just turned 24) during a press schmoozer for Grease 2. I’ve just been sent access to her latest film, Azazel Jacobs‘ French Exit (Sony Pictures Classics, 2.12.21). The surreal comedy will premiere at the New York Film Festival on 10.11.20.

In a 10.8 Variety piece, award-season prognosticator Clayton Davis has picked some Best Actor favorites. Here they are plus my two cents:

1. Anthony Hopkins, The Father (Sony Pictures Classics) / HE sez: Definitely.
2. Delroy Lindo, Da 5 Bloods (Netflix) / HE sez: Due respect for a strong performances, but I think Lindo belongs in supporting as Spike Lee‘s back-to-Vietnam film is an ensemble.
3. Gary Oldman, Mank (Netflix) / HE sez: Haven’t seen David Fincher‘s period film, but almost certainly.
4. Daniel Kaluuya, Judas and the Black Messiah (Warner Bros.) / HE sez: This means Clayton has seen it, I presume. I haven’t, and I haven’t heard squat. Anyone?
5. Steven Yeun, Minari (A24) / HE sez: Haven’t seen it, but the reviews don’t exactly scream “holy shit, drop to your knees…Steven Yeun hits it out of the park!” The Sundance reviews were positive, approving, respectful.

Second Tier:

6. Tom Hanks, News of the World (Universal Pictures) / HE sez: Nobody’s seen the film, but the New Academy Kidz would prefer to award an actor of color. Or so I understand.
7. Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal (Amazon Studios) / Variety‘s Owen Gleiberman sez: “Ahmed plays Ruben as a sweet but blunted outsider who confronts his ]increasing deafness] the same way he does everything else: with poe-faced blankness.” Doesn’t sound like a Best Actor performance to me.
8. Kingsley Ben-Adir, One Night in Miami…” (Amazon Studios) / HE sez: A steady-as-she-goes performance as Malcom X in a good film, but calm down.
9. Dev Patel, The Personal History of David Copperfield (Searchlight Pictures) / HE sez: You think?
10. Tom Holland, Cherry (Apple TV Plus) / HE sez: Haven’t seen it.

For years the vast majority have been visiting websites on their smart phones and iPad/Kindles, and the coding naturally caters to that reality. But when you go to the main N.Y. Times page on your Macbook Pro, the copy is centered and occupying roughly 60% of the acreage. Visit Hollywood-elsewhere.com on your laptop, and the top logo-and-banner area occupies 70% of the screen while the centered column-space width represents about 1/3 of the screen space, and is easily expandable. But when you go variety.com everything is weirdly scrunched into the middle; The Hollywood Reporter occupies a wider area or close to half the screen. I only know that laptop-wise, HE’s column copy is bigger and wider and less of a hassle than the trades.

Respect and adieu to Whitey Ford.

In the old days major-league baseball players wore knee socks and black leather lace-ups with metal cleats. Today’s players don’t wear knee socks for the most part, and their footwear is more or less on the level of standard Sports Locker sneakers. With cleats. And in the old days you almost never saw an overweight baseball player, Babe Ruth aside. These days roly-poly players are at least somewhat common. I don’t watch enough baseball to get into this any further. I’m just saying.